mtv's flagship channel rarely shows music videos, but the subchannels show nothing else. there's mtv jams and mtv hits, and a few others that i don't pay any attention to. there are two country music video channels -- cmt and cmt pure, which are both operated by mtv. mtvu is a very good channel that airs videos from young artists.

i don't think i've watched mtv in ten years, but i watch mtv jams and mtv hits all the time. they're roughly equivalent to hot-97 and z100.

i feel you, biggie. it is *very* hard for me to write about an an artist as multifaceted as nas for a general readership and to keep it to 200 words. you're absolutely right that it's a real weakness. it's something i've been trying to improve on, but i continue to find it the biggest challenge of this beat.

i'm a big fan, too, and i really do like "life is good." i was trying to align the record with "god's son" and "street's disciple" -- albums that play as entries in an ongoing musical autobiography -- rather than the last three. but i feel like i prohibit myself from explaining to general readers why it's worth engaging with the album if i dwell too much on its place in the discography. ideally, i would have been able to do this as a 500 word review, but for jersey reasons (and not small-time jersey reasons), i felt i had to lead with gaslight anthem. this isn't the last time i write about nas or "life is good" this year, and i hope that next time, i can better represent why so many of us -- me included -- feel that the story of nas is such a rewarding one to follow.

the b-52s aren't a band that i've spent a lot of time engaging with, and i admit i actively dislike about half of "cosmic thing." but i find that when i do go back and watch old clips of the group in performance, i walk away impressed. they come off as a proto-indiepop group: they're not terribly interested in playing in tune or in time. they're more concerned with generating a vibe and subverting standard pop show expectations.

because i first came to the band's music in the '80s, i was under the impression that the b-52s were all about channeling hedonism and kitsch. what i've learned is that at their best, the b-52s were using hedonism and kitsch to create something else -- something entirely theirs. i don't think i'm taking them too seriously by pointing out that the punchbowl was always spiked. the "funplex" critique was there from the beginning. sometimes it was dormant, and sometimes, it was as obvious as it is on devo albums.

ricky wilson aside -- and it seems to me that the band has never recovered from losing him -- "funplex" is closer to the first few b-52s albums than it is to "cosmic thing."

the group has often undermined its own claim to depth by surrendering to schtick. but there's far more substance there than i initially believed there was. some of that is formal: you almost never see men and women standing shoulder to shoulder in a pop group. that's provocative. but some of it has to do with the recordings, too.

while i'd seen squeeze several times, i'd never seen the b-52s before. honestly, i wasn't expecting much. yet there were several things about the b-52s set that impressed me.

i appreciated that they *didn't* approach the show as a dance party or a greatest hits concert -- they played four songs from "funplex," and went back to the first and best album for "lava" and "52 girls," neither of which were hits. rather than playing up the kitsch, they emphasized the satirical (and subtly confrontational) nature of the project.

maybe that was just the mood robert schneider was in. but that's also true about "funplex." that's where he is right now. the critique of hedonism and consumer capitalism that was always present in his writing has been made sharper. he wants to make fun of mall shoppers and call out governor christie. he's got the right: he's from newark.

he should know (and surely does know) that that's likely to turn off people who are there to dance to "love shack."

i did not expect the b-52s to sing beautifully. the b-52s have never sung beautifully. if you go on youtube and watch old clips of the band from the '70s (i did a lot of this yesterday), the singing is not aces.

i'm not sure why you're asking me this question. i've never accused you of being racist -- i don't have any idea who you are. i'm not going to hang a man i don't know or call him names because of a stupid thing that he said or did.

kanye west has said and done a lot of dumb stuff that he clearly wishes he could take back, and i imagine he's going to continue saying and doing dumb stuff that he'll later want to take back. that's him. in that regard, he is no different from me, or, i'd wager, you.

kanye asks us only that we judge his public statements in the context of six albums worth of writing that he's actually taken the time to craft. you don't have to answer him when he asks.

but if you choose to judge the artist on what he does when he's drunk and not thinking clearly and disregard what he's chosen to give you when he's at the peak of his powers, that's on you. you've made a decision to see your fellow man at his worst. you're only interested in part of the story -- the uninteresting part, frankly.

were you in his position (and we're all in that position all the time), i wager you wouldn't want to be judged on your mistakes alone.

i have no interest in banning you or anybody else from this site. i'm not a policeman.

if you are going to make a serious charge against somebody in a public forum, it's your responsibility to back it up with some evidence. you wrote that kanye west made stupid hater racist statements -- too many to list. those are your words. back them up by producing some.

okay, folks, before this goes any further, it's time to clarify a few things.

there is no evidence to suggest that kanye west has ill feelings about white people.

west has now released five albums (six if you count "watch the throne") and several mixtapes. he has written with some subtlety about race and african-american identity. in no lyric does he make any sweeping statements about white people. he'll occasionally engage in conspiracy talk -- "crack music" is the most obvious example -- but he's hardly unique there. he does not blame white people for his problems. typically, he blames himself for his problems, and does so at great length.

he puts those problems in cultural context. he'd be a poor writer if he didn't.

kanye has acted the fool many times. there are plenty of reasons to get on him if you want to. racism isn't one of them.

when i got home last night, they were in the second inning and the giants already had a five run lead. i figured, finally!, a rocking chair game for this team that habitually plays one-run nailbiters! little did i know that an hour later, i'd be biting my nails for a different reason.

once blanco made the catch in right -- one of the best catches i've ever seen, given the circumstances -- i knew it was going to happen. without getting into too many particulars, let's just say the ghosts were out last night.

this means so much to us because cain's draft was the beginning of the turnaround. before cain, timmy, sanchez and bumgarner, the giants wore the black hats. i will always be grateful to barry bonds, but i acknowledge that there were times when he was tough to defend. and i'm not even talking about balco. cain has sometimes been overshadowed by flashier giants with more facial hair, but every real fan of the team loves him. he was always the guy who didn't get the breaks -- bad run support, balls bouncing the wrong way, etc. he's never complained. he had the whole bay area on his shoulders and he didn't flinch. it was a beautiful thing, and a night i'll never forget.